Originally Posted by mothernature

The flu is nothing to laugh or make light of.

The flu is a disease that has a high rate of mutation. The flu changes. It changes fast.

The Center for Disease Control estimates that an average of 36,000 people die in the U.S. each year from flu related deaths. This is from the common, controllable types of flu.

The flu killed 50 million people in 1918. Within months, it had killed more people than any other illness in recorded history.

The plague did not discriminate. It was rampant in urban and rural areas, from the densely populated East coast to the remotest parts of Alaska. Young adults, usually unaffected by these types of infectious diseases, were among the hardest hit groups along with the elderly and young children.

Now granted, we have antibiotics now, but there are strains of flu that are resistant to treatment and with the high rate of mutation, it is not a stretch to expect the 'super flu' to come along anytime now.

Now, am I going to live in fear, hiding in my house? No.

What really gets me is that so much could be prevented if people would just wash their fucking hands. I mean, really, it only takes a few seconds and so many people just don't do it.